Osaka Castle

Thirteen Edo-period buildings at Osaka Castle

Osaka Castle (大阪城, Ōsaka-jō) in Chuo Ward, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, keeps 13 historic buildings erected between 1620 and 1887, including the Otemon Gate and the Sengan and Inui turrets, which were designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan on June 13, 1953.

Most visitors come for the white-and-gold keep, so it is worth knowing at the outset that the keep is not one of the 13. The present tower is a 1931 reconstruction paid for by public donations, the third to stand on the site. The designated buildings are the older, lower structures around it: gates, turrets, walls, storehouses and a well house that survived fires, demolitions and wartime bombing.

The castle's story begins in 1583, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi started building on the former grounds of the Osaka (Ishiyama) Honganji temple; the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the design as modeled on Azuchi Castle. The Toyotomi line was destroyed in the Summer Campaign of the Siege of Osaka in 1615, and the castle burned with it. Every stretch of stone wall and moat you see today, and every one of the 13 buildings, belongs to the castle the Tokugawa shogunate rebuilt afterward.

That rebuilding ran from 1620 to 1630. The new keep was struck by lightning and lost in 1665 and was never replaced during the Edo period, yet the grounds still held more than 30 turrets and dozens of gates and storehouses. Later fires, demolition and the upheaval of 1868 took most of them. What remains is listed below.

• Sengan Turret and Inui Turret: built in 1620, the oldest structures in the castle
• Kinmeisui Well House: 1626
• Rokuban Turret: 1628
• Ichiban Turret: recorded by the Agency for Cultural Affairs as 1630, and heavily remodeled in 1668
• Enshogura Gunpowder Magazine: 1685, according to the Agency's building record and the park's own guide
• Kinzo Treasury: given its present single-story form in 1837
• Otemon Gate, Tamon Turret and three wall sections (south and north of the Otemon Gate, and north of the Tamon Turret): built or restored around 1848
• Sakuramon Gate: rebuilt in 1887

Why Osaka Castle's 13 buildings were designated

The Agency for Cultural Affairs' commentary explains why the 13 buildings at Osaka Castle became an Important Cultural Property in 1953, and it makes two points. Although all 13 buildings date from after the Tokugawa rebuilding, together they still convey the scale of Osaka Castle; and their details record how castle architecture changed over the years in which they were built. The significance lies less in any single building than in a span of about 270 years preserved within one castle.

The contrast is easy to find. The Sengan and Inui turrets of 1620 belong to the very first phase of the rebuilding. According to Osaka Castle Park, the Rokuban Turret of 1628, built near the end of the works, already shows a different style and different methods. Construction practice shifted within eight years.

Much of this dating came out of a program of full dismantling and repair between 1959 and 1969. The Inui Turret was taken apart in 1959; the gunpowder magazine and the treasury in 1960; the Ichiban Turret in 1965; the Rokuban Turret in 1966; the Otemon Gate in 1967; and the Tamon Turret, the Sakuramon Gate and the Kinmeisui Well House in 1969. During the work on the Sengan Turret that began in 1960, carpenters found an ink inscription on a sill timber recording that the posts were raised on the 13th day of the 9th month of Genna 6, which pins the building down to a specific day in 1620. The 1969 repair of the well house showed that it went up in 1626, the same year as the Tokugawa keep.

Sources do not always agree on dates. The Agency's database gives the Otemon Gate as around 1848, while Osaka Castle Park says the gate was first built in 1628 and restored in 1848. For the gunpowder magazine, the Agency's building record and the park both give 1685, but the Agency's commentary text says 1661. The treasury is said to have been built with two stories in 1751 and cut down to one in 1837. If an on-site sign seems to contradict something you read here, this is usually why.

What to look for at each of Osaka Castle's four clusters

The 13 buildings sit in four groups: the main Otemon entrance, the Nishinomaru (west bailey), the south side of the Ninomaru (second bailey), and the Honmaru (main bailey) around the keep. The park's own designated-property walking course starts at the Otemon Gate and finishes at the Kinmeisui Well House, which is a sensible order to follow.

The Otemon entrance: gate, Tamon Turret, Sengan Turret and three walls

The Otemon Gate (大手門), also written 追手門, was the castle's front gate. It is a Kōraimon-style gate with a Hongawarabuki tiled roof. Walls run off to either side. The Agency records the wall south of the gate as bending at a right angle over 60.0 meters, with 9 gun ports and 14 loopholes cut into its stone base; the wall to the north runs 21.5 meters with 3 gun ports and 7 stone loopholes; and the wall north of the Tamon Turret runs 20.3 meters with 3 gun ports and 6 stone loopholes. Together the three come to 101.8 meters. Look down at the foot of the walls and you can see the Sama openings spaced along the stone.

Pass through the gate and you are in a walled Masugata courtyard, a box designed to trap attackers. The long building on top of its walls is the Tamon Turret (多聞櫓), a Tamon-yagura that incorporates the great inner gate into the Ninomaru. It has two parts: a section spanning the inner gate east to west, and a wing that turns south from its eastern end. The inner gate's doors are clad in iron plate. Its combined floor area is 710.25 square meters and it stands about 14.7 meters high. According to Osaka City, the gate-spanning section holds a central room of about 70 tatami mats flanked by two rooms of about 50 mats each, while the wing has a corridor about 2.7 meters wide and six rooms of 9, 12 and 15 mats. Directly above the gate is a "spear-drop" slot for attacking anyone trying to force the doors. The turret is thought to have been built around 1628, burned after a lightning strike in 1783 and rebuilt in 1848. Other gate courtyards at Osaka Castle once had turrets of this type; this is the only one left.

North of the gate stands the Sengan Turret (千貫櫓), a two-story corner turret that Osaka Castle Park describes as guarding the Otemon Gate from the north, placed so defenders could shoot into the flank of an attacking force. It went up in 1620 under the direction of Kobori Masakazu, better known as the tea master Kobori Enshu. The name is traditionally explained by a story from Oda Nobunaga's campaign against the Honganji: his soldiers, pinned down by flanking fire from a turret near this spot, are said to have grumbled that it would be worth a thousand kan of coins to take it. The turret has 217.26 square meters on the first floor and 162.95 square meters on the second, 380.21 square meters in total, with four rooms on each level set inside a surrounding corridor. From just outside the gate, the Sengan and Tamon turrets line up along the top of the wall.

The Nishinomaru: Inui Turret and the gunpowder magazine

The Inui Turret (乾櫓) guards the northwest corner of the Nishinomaru; inui is the old word for that direction. Also built in 1620 to a design by Kobori Masakazu, it is L-shaped and unusual in having two floors of identical size, each 186.23 square meters. Because it could be seen head-on from the south, west and north, it was nicknamed the "turret with three fronts," and it commanded a view from the Otemon entrance round to the Kyobashi entrance. Projecting from the middle of its west and north walls are gabled Ishiotoshi bays for dropping stones on attackers. The best view of them is from across the western outer moat.

The Enshogura Gunpowder Magazine (焔硝蔵) stored black powder. The Agency lists it as a single-story stone building with a Yosemune-zukuri hipped roof and tiled covering. Walls, floor and ceiling are all dressed granite and Shikkui plaster, a fire-resistant build that Osaka Castle Park says makes it the only surviving magazine of its kind. It stands inside Nishinomaru Garden, which charges admission.

The south side of the Ninomaru: Rokuban and Ichiban turrets

Seven corner turrets once lined the south face of the Ninomaru above the southern outer moat. Only two remain, the Rokuban (No. 6) and Ichiban (No. 1) turrets, both two stories with tiled roofs. The Rokuban Turret dates from 1628 and, as noted above, is the one to compare with the earlier Sengan and Inui turrets. The Ichiban Turret takes its name from being the easternmost of the seven and covered the flank of the Tamatsukuri Gate. A path along the outside of the southern moat gives a view of both across the water.

The Honmaru: Sakuramon Gate, Kinzo Treasury and Kinmeisui Well House

The Sakuramon Gate (桜門) is a tiled koraimon-type gate at the entry to the Honmaru. It burned in the fighting of 1868 and was rebuilt by the army in 1887 following its Tokugawa-period design, which makes it the only Meiji-era building among the 13.

The Kinzo Treasury (金蔵, Kinzō) held the shogunate's gold and silver coin. The Agency classes it as a Dozo-zukuri storehouse, single-story with a hipped, tiled roof. Its lower walls are faced in Namako-kabe tile-and-plaster, and the building carries fittings designed against fire, damp and theft. Its present low profile dates from the 1837 conversion from two stories to one.

The Kinmeisui Well House (金明水井戸屋形) shelters a well on the small platform beside the keep's base. It is a tiny one-bay by one-bay structure with a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof, and the designation includes its stone well curb. Legend says Hideyoshi sank gold in the well to purify the water. The Osaka Castle Museum reports that excavation inside the well during a comprehensive survey in 1959 turned up nothing from the Toyotomi period, and the well is now thought to be entirely a Tokugawa construction. Originally called Ōgonsui, it was reported in a newspaper at the time as 28.2 meters from the curb to the water surface. The well house came through the fire that destroyed the keep in 1665.

Visiting Osaka Castle's historic buildings

Most of Osaka Castle's 13 buildings can be seen free of charge from the paths of Osaka Castle Park. The Otemon Gate, the three walls and the Tamon and Sengan turrets are at the Otemon entrance; the Inui Turret is best seen from outside the western moat; the Rokuban and Ichiban turrets from the southern moat; and the Sakuramon Gate and Kinzo Treasury inside the Honmaru. Exteriors can be photographed from the paths.

The gunpowder magazine is inside Nishinomaru Garden, so you need a garden ticket. According to Osaka City, the garden is open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from March to October and 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from November to February, with ticket sales ending 30 minutes before closing. It is closed on Mondays (the following weekday if Monday is a holiday) and over the New Year period.

The interiors of the Tamon, Sengan and Inui turrets open only during limited special openings. Osaka City's announcement for 2026 lists the Tamon and Sengan turrets on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays in spring (March 14 to May 24) and autumn (September 5 to November 29), with daily opening, weekdays included, from September 19 to 27. The Inui Turret opened alone on weekends and holidays in summer (July 18 to August 16). Hours are 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with ticket sales ending at 3:30 p.m. and last entry at 4:00 p.m. A combined turret ticket, which also covers Nishinomaru Garden, costs 900 yen for adults (high school age and over) and 300 yen for children (junior high and younger). A set ticket that adds the keep museum costs 2,000 yen for adults and 1,400 yen for high school and university students. Tickets are sold at the Nishinomaru Garden entrance. Check the rules on photography inside the turrets when you arrive.

The Kinmeisui Well House is on the small platform by the keep entrance. The Osaka Castle Museum in the keep is open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (last entry 5:30 p.m.), closed December 28 to January 1, with admission of 1,200 yen for adults and 600 yen for high school and university students.

Several stations serve the park. To start at the Otemon Gate, use Tanimachi 4-chome Station on the Osaka Metro Tanimachi Line (Exit 1-B) or Chuo Line (Exit 9). Temmabashi Station (Osaka Metro Tanimachi Line and Keihan), Morinomiya Station (Osaka Metro Chuo and Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi lines, and JR Osaka Loop Line), Osakajokoen Station (JR Osaka Loop Line), Osaka Business Park Station (Osaka Metro Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi Line) and Osakajo-kitazume Station (JR Tozai Line) are also close. Osaka City gives the walk to Nishinomaru Garden as about 15 minutes from Tanimachi 4-chome (Exit 9), Temmabashi or Morinomiya, and about 20 minutes from Osakajokoen. Prices and dates were checked in September 2026.